Nothing’s more frustrating for a seller than having your home sit on the market. And sit… and sit… and sit some more. Maybe buyers are touring your house, but not making offers. Or maybe buyers aren’t visiting your home at all. Either way, you’re starting to feel rejected. Often, the reason a home sits on the market for longer than expected boils down to a few easy-to-fix issues. Here are six of the big reasons your home may not be selling.

This is part of a continuing series of articles and helpful tips and insights into help you you’re your home by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) Personal Property Managers specializes in real estate sales and marketing, home downsizing, content clean out and removal and estate sales, and services Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

1. You’ve priced your home too high.
No matter what you feel your home should be worth, the truth is it’s only worth what people are willing to pay for it. Get a feel for what the comps — or comparable homes in your area — are going for and listen to buyer feedback. If people are consistently telling you the price is an issue, it’s time to pay attention. Trust your real estate agent to inform you about a fair price for the current market, and if you’re truly dead-set on getting your ideal asking price, take an honest look at whether you need to make upgrades to your home or wait for a market uptick.

2. No one knows your home is for sale.
Simply sticking a “for sale” sign in the lawn won’t cut it. Today’s buyers do the majority of their home searching online, which means you need to get your home listed on major real estate sites and on the MLS, or the multiple listing service, used by realtors and brokers. You’ll also want to make sure your online listing includes plenty of high-quality, well-staged photos.

3. Your home has some major issues.
It could be a big issue (like a old and leaking roof), or it could be a small but obnoxious issue that buyers just can’t get past (like outdated carpeting or wall paper). Either way, the fact that your home isn’t selling means buyers are consistently finding something wrong with it. Ask potential buyers for feedback after you conduct showings; their answers may help clue you in to the problem. Some buyers are willing to accept a lower price or a closing credit for a home with a sticking-point issue, but others are turned off from the start and figure it’s not worth the hassle of fixing it themselves or trying to negotiate a concession.

4. Your home does not have curb appeal and just does not show well.
Make sure that when prospective buyers tour your home, there’s nothing stopping them from falling in love with it. Open those blinds and curtains to let the natural light in and put lamps in areas that are especially dim. Remove any bulky furniture that makes the rooms hard to navigate. Take care of those small items you’ve been putting off, like fixing sticky drawer pulls or that leaky faucet. Small updates like these could be turning off buyers.

5. Buyers can’t picture themselves living there.
The more you enable buyers to picture their own life in your house, the more likely they’ll be to make an offer. Clean and remove clutter and get rid of overly personal items like those family photos along the stairway and your kids’ artwork on the fridge. If your home is currently empty, near-empty, or your furnishings aren’t to most buyers’ tastes, you may want to consider hiring someone to professionally stage your rooms.

6. You’ve neglected the curb appeal.
More than one buyer has pulled up to a house whose listing they liked, taken one look at the exterior, and driven away. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your home is on the inside; if buyers aren’t willing to step in the door, then you’ve lost them.

A few simple fixes can make your curb appeal irresistible. Weed and mulch the flowerbeds, trim the hedges, clear the walkways, and repaint any flaking siding. Consider adding some “homey” touches like a wreath on the door or a bench on the porch. You don’t need to spend a ton on landscaping; just making the outside look presentable and welcoming can make all the difference.

For more information on real estate or home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at http://www.personalpropertymanagers.com or simply give us a call at215-485-9272or908-368-1909.Personal Property Managersspecializes in helping to home owners transition from their home of many years into a new community. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, discount full service real estate services via its association withEvery Home Realty.

We are pleased to announce a premium quality content estate and moving sale, Friday and Saturday, June 26 – 27, 2015, in Doylestown, PA…the heart of Bucks County. Situated in a lovely Toll Brothers development off of Cold Spring Creamery Road, this estate sale has many sought after items.

Working with caregivers and seniors we are often amazed at the incredible cost of care for our elderly loved ones. With this in mind, we are sharing with you the annual “Cost of Care” report from Genworth Financial which tracks the staggering rise in expenses for long-term care, which is a growing financial burden for families, governments and insurers. Did you know that the cost of staying in a nursing home has increased 4 percent every year over the last five years and last year, the median bill was $87,600.

This is part of a continuing series of articles and helpful tips and insights to help you Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) Personal Property Managers specializes in real estate sales and marketing, home downsizing, content clean out and removal and estate sales, and services Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The steep cost of caring for the elderly continues to climb. The median bill for a private room in a nursing home is now $91,250 a year, according to the most recent industry survey.
Most people don’t realize how expensive this care can be until a parent or family member needs it, and then it’s a real shock.

The annual report from Genworth, which sells long term care policies, looks at costs for a variety of services, including adult daycare, and home health aides. And nursing home bills are rising at the fastest pace, twice the rate of U.S. inflation over the last five years. One year in a nursing home now costs nearly as much as three years of tuition at a private college.

For its report, Genworth surveyed 15,000 nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other providers across the country in January and February. It found wide differences from state to state. In Oklahoma, for instance, the median cost for a year in a nursing home came out to $60,225. In Connecticut, it was $158,775. Alaska had the highest costs by far, with one year at $281,415.

So, who pays the nursing-home bill? A lot of people believe Medicare will step in and cover them, but that’s just not true. Medicare will cover some short visits for recovery after a surgery, typically up to 30 days, for instance, but not long-term stays.

Often enough, experts say senior citizens wind up spending their savings until they hit their last $2,000, and at that point they can turn to Medicaid, the government’s health insurance for the poor, to help cover the bill. As a result, Medicaid pays for more than half of the country’s long-term care bill. That cost accounts for more than a quarter of Medicaid spending, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Insurers offer long-term care policies to help people shoulder the financial burden. But people have to be healthy enough to qualify for coverage. Those who take out policies find their insurance bill rises steadily as they age. Mounting costs not only affect those who pay for policies they also affect insurance providers. Four of the five largest providers have either scaled back their business or stopped offering new policies.

Less-intensive care remains much cheaper than staying at a nursing home, according to Genworth’s survey. One year in in an assisted-living facility runs $43,200. A year of visits from an agency’s home health aides runs $45,760.

For more information on real estate or home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers athttp://www.personalpropertymanagers.com or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to home owners transition from their home of many years into a new community. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, discount full service real estate services via its association with Every Home Realty.

The number 1 thing you can do to help sell your home – Proper Home Pricing

Are you thinking about selling your home? Are you the executor of an estate and must now liquidate the estate and sell a home?

People always ask us what is the single most important thing that we should consider and or do when trying to sell a home.

You want to know what the secret is to selling your home? Well its proper pricing…right up front; right from the beginning. Pricing your home properly to begin with is without question the single most important factor to selling your home for top dollar. It is a delicate balancing act that, when done properly, positions your home perfectly in the marketplace to sell for the absolute highest possible price. When the home is priced too low, it will sell quickly but for less money than it should. When the home is priced too high, it will sit on the market for a long period of time and ultimately sell for less money than it should.

This is part of a continuing series of articles and helpful tips and insights into help you you’re your home by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) Personal Property Managers specializes in real estate sales and marketing, home downsizing, content clean out and removal and estate sales, and services Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The biggest mistake we see by owners trying to sell on their own or even by real estate agents, is overpricing a home to start with and having to reduce the price multiple times. When a home is listed for sale, it reaches the highest number of potential buyers the first few days it is on the market. If a home is dismissed as being overpriced early on, you will lose potential buyers.

Typically, buyers will flip through listings online; they look at the main home photo first, then they look at the price. If the potential buyer does not like either of those items, they will move on to the next listing. Put yourself in their shoes. Pretend you are a buyer; be honest: How many times have you done that? You look, get turned off and move on…right? The answer is yes, we do it all the time.

The challenge is pricing the home properly. You can use some online tools and websites, you can see how much a neighbor’s home is listed for and price a home the same, or you can just price the home at the amount of money you “want” to get (or need to get) for it. We’re sorry to tell you that none of those methods work, and they certainly will not help you sell a home for top dollar.

Let’s take a quick look at why these methods don’t work. Many people will start with any number of online home review sites. They are all well-marketed tools. Did you know that they are in the business of generating leads for real estate agents? The problem is that they are not usually accurate. Their entire system is computerized and based off of public records that are sometimes incorrect. There have been many occasions when we have come across public records in which the number of bedrooms, bathrooms or the square footage of a home has been incorrect. All of these errors lead to inaccurate results.

In our opinion, the biggest issue with the these generic online home search sites is their inability to take into account items such as home features, upgrades and the condition of a property. Those items require an actual human to take an in-depth look at your property and determine how it truly compares to another properties. Once that determination is made, proper adjustments to the value are made.

We are not here to bash online generic home sites; far be it from us. They are fine for a broad brush estimate. A home is most likely the single largest item you will sell in your lifetime. Do yourself a favor and do not use these generic online home sites as a pricing tool for your home — it could end up costing you tens of thousands of dollars.

Looking at how much a neighbor’s home is listed for or seeing how much other properties currently for sale are listed for does not work because we want to know exactly what homes have sold for, not what they are attempting to sell for. The only thing a home still for sale or “active” tells us is that the home is probably overpriced. The most accurate way to predict what a home will sell for is by finding out what similar homes sold for.

Listing your home for how much you want or need to get is wrong. Truthfully, it does not matter what you want or need to get for a home. That is a poor pricing strategy. The fact is, a home is worth exactly what a qualified buyer is willing to pay for it. What you want or need has no bearing on that.

The key to selling a home for top dollar is to strategically price the home right…right from the begining. To do that, you need to take a detailed look at similar homes that recently sold in the area. Hire a real estate agent who is an expert. Know the average current days on market for the homes that sold. Find out how many days on market on average homes that are currently for sale and recently sold are averaging. Also find out how many price reductions were needed and how much those price reductions were.

We pride ourselves on providing our clients with a complete comparative market analysis (CMA). This will allow us to accurately compare a clients home to recently sold homes on the market. The trick is to price a home so it is considered to be the best value in the price range.

Remember that if a home is overpriced compared to the other homes on the market, all you are doing is helping other people sell other homes by making their homes look like a better value. The guidance of a high-quality real estate agent can help homebuyers land on the most strategic price and get a home sold for top dollar.
Lastly, and equally important is please do not forget that virtually all home buyers will need the assistance of a bank or mortgage company when buying a home. What does this mean to a seller? It is extremely important for a seller to understand that even if they are lucky enough to get a buyer to agree upon a purchase price that is higher that market comps, the deal still may not go through. Why? Because the buyers bank or mortgage company will come out to the property and do a independent appraisal. If they find that the property is overpriced and out of line with market comps they will reject the deal. Why? Because they do not want to be on the ‘hook’ if the buyer goes bad somewhere down the road. The banks do not want to ‘stuck’ with a home that is overvalued and thus ‘underwater.’ So, again, we repeat that the single most important thing that a seller can do is to price their property correctly and in line with market comps from the very beginning. A successful seller needs to not only think about themselves, but also think about the buyers and their mortgage company and the probability of successfully completing the deal where all parties are satisfied and made whole.

For more information on real estate or home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at www.personalpropertymanagers.com or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to home owners transition from their home of many years into a new community. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, discount full service real estate services via its association with Every Home Realty.

There are lots of different points of views on when and how to sell your home. We are often asked what are the best things we can do to get the most value for our home when the time comes to sell it? Beyond the obvious, which is keeping it clean and de-cluttered, we’ve come up with 4 key things you can do and consider when selling your home.

This is part of a continuing series of articles and helpful tips and insights into help you you’re your home by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) Personal Property Managers specializes in real estate sales and marketing, home downsizing, content clean out and removal and estate sales, and services Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

How a home looks and feels to a potential buyer can make all the difference. Spring is the biggest season in the real estate market, and while many in the area may be about to put their homes on the market, there are some practices to keep in mind when doing so, Nick Santoro of Personal Property Managers said.

How a house is presented can influence how long the house will sit on the market and even how much money the seller can sell the house for. Santoro said there are many small things that a seller can do to make sure the house isn’t on the market for a long period of time. Nick says “you only have one chance to make a first impression, and making a good first impression can go a long way in selling your house.”

If potential buyers feel comfortable in a house and can see themselves living there, they are more likely to buy or consider the house.

Here are four tips we often share with our clients on how sellers should present their homes when looking to sell:

Declutter and keep your home as clean as possible
This may seem simple, but people touring the house like to see clean and polished homes.
Little things such as if the burners are dirty or if the light switches have smudges on them can really turn a buyer off.

A lot of times it’s the little things that can make a big difference in buyers’ minds. For example, things such as stains in the carpet, dirty appliances and clutter lying around the house should be taken care of before showing the house.

Since people selling the house will soon be moving, now is when sellers should start cleaning their house and getting rid of unnecessary items.

We encourage people to not clutter up their houses by putting all of these items in one spot, such as a garage or basement because potential buyers have trouble looking past the mess.
If the house is cluttered, sometimes people will wonder what else on the property hasn’t been taken care of.

Home inspection
One of the most important things a potential seller can do is get a full home inspection prior to putting the house on the market. Joe Santoro, of Personal Property Managers points out that even if there is a meeting of the minds between the buyer and seller as to price, and bank approvals are in place, a buyer home inspection can bring to light many things that need to be addressed. This is often the time when most deals blow up. Many times sellers are insulted with a home inspection report and buyers feel that all items identified in the inspection report need to be addressed by the seller. This could run into the thousands of dollars. Thus, we advise sellers to spend the money to get a home inspection in advance of putting their home on the market to be pro-active in addressing these issues.

Since most sellers put their houses on the market three to six months before selling, an early home inspection can give early warning signs about potential repairs or problems with the house.
If you find out ahead of time, it’s easier to make those repairs and get the house ready; you don’t want the new owners thinking you cut corners.

Making repairs on the house after the fact can delay the closing and cause more headaches in the long run.

Curb appeal
Things such as landscaping can give homes high curb appeal, making them take less time to sell.
While sellers may not get the same value back that they spent on how the house looks, it does make a big difference in the eyes of potential buyers.

Nick says that when the house looks nice on the outside, it sets the tone for what is on the inside.
Trees make a big difference in both providing shade for the yard but also by providing a more homey feel.

A well-taken care of yard will do wonders for potential sellers. Even if it’s minor fixes such as mowing the grass or painting the shutters, potential buyers will enjoy the house’s curb appeal.

Blank walls

Lastly, one thing potential buyers try to do when touring a home is picturing themselves at that particular residence.

One way to help them do that is by taking personal photos off of the refrigerator and walls.
By removing personal objects, the person walking through can imagine his or her family photos on the walls and not someone else’s.

People want to imagine living there, by taking things off the walls, they’re able to do that more easily.

For more information on real estate or home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at http://www.personalpropertymanagers.com or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to home owners transition from their home of many years into a new community. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, discount full service real estate services via its association with EveryHome Realty.

People are always asking us what’s the best way to increase the value and selling price of our home. We took a look at recent industry information, trends and returns on investments and came up with the top 3 things that you can do to quickly increase the value of your home.

This is part of a continuing series of articles and helpful tips and insights into help you you’re your home by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) Personal Property Managers specializes in real estate sales and marketing, home downsizing, content clean out and removal and estate sales, and services Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

1. Refurbish the bathroom, not the kitchen
It has long been told that the best remodeling you could do was the kitchen. We found this to not be true. According to cost vs. value studies, we found it’s actually the bathroom remodel that adds the most value to a house.

According to recent studies, it makes the most logical sense to redo the bathroom because with a bathroom remodeled you are adding functionality to your home whereas kitchen upgrades are often more about fashion.
Recent remodeling studies show that a mid-range $3,000 bathroom remodel results in a $1.71 increase in home value for every $1.00 spend on renovation.

Plus when guest come to stay with you, they are going to be a lot happier that you have a nicer bathroom than kitchen. Did you know that kitchen renovations offer among the lowest returns on investment? Both mid range and upscale work on the kitchen recover only about half of their investment.

Invest wisely and don’t invest too much money in the bathroom. An upscale remodeled $12,000 bathroom result only in an $0.87 increase in home value for every $1.00 spent.

2. Selling season
Home sales reach their peak in June, during the last week of that month residential real estate transactions are 40% higher than average. But when is the right time to list your home?

The home season starts to crank up in January and February. But to get the most bang for your buck you might want to list your house during the last two weeks of March. There’s a sharp spike in visitors making contact with real estate agents beginning in mid-April and continuing into July.

Selling in the last weeks of March, before the peak in agent contacts and after the peak of newly listed homes in February puts your home in the sweet-spot where it’s likely to be seen quickly and not get lost within a flood of new listings.

3. Psychologically price your home
Ending your home price in a ‘9’ also is something powerful to consider. According to national real estate trade groups, if you were going to sell your house for $150,000, just pricing it down by $1,000 and selling it for $149,000 ends up in you making $2175 more than you would if you priced it at $150,000.

For more information on real estate or home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at http://www.personalpropertymanagers.com or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to home owners transition from their home of many years into a new community. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, discount full service real estate services via its association with EveryHome Realty.

Nothing’s more frustrating for a seller than having your home sit on the market. And sit… and sit… and sit some more. Maybe buyers are touring your house, but not making offers. Or maybe buyers aren’t visiting your home at all. Either way, you’re starting to feel rejected. Often, the reason a home sits on the market for longer than expected boils down to a few easy-to-fix issues. Here are six of the big ones.

This is part of a continuing series of articles and helpful tips and insights into help you you’re your home by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) Personal Property Managers specializes in real estate sales and marketing, home downsizing, content clean out and removal and estate sales, and services Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

1. You’ve priced it too high.
No matter what you feel your home should be worth, the truth is it’s only worth what people are willing to pay for it. Get a feel for what the comps — or comparable homes in your area — are going for and listen to buyer feedback. If people are consistently telling you the price is an issue, it’s time to pay attention. Trust your real estate agent to inform you about a fair price for the current market, and if you’re truly dead-set on getting your ideal asking price, take an honest look at whether you need to make upgrades to your home or wait for a market uptick.

2. No one knows it’s for sale.
Simply sticking a “for sale” sign in the lawn won’t cut it. Today’s buyers do the majority of their home searching online, which means you need to get your home listed on major real estate sites and on the MLS, or the multiple listing service, used by realtors and brokers. You’ll also want to make sure your online listing includes plenty of high-quality, well-staged photos.

3. It’s got glaring issues…but…..
It could be a big issue (like a old and leaking roof), or it could be a small but obnoxious issue that buyers just can’t get past (like outdated carpeting or wall paper). Either way, the fact that your home isn’t selling means buyers are consistently finding something wrong with it. Ask potential buyers for feedback after you conduct showings; their answers may help clue you in to the problem. Some buyers are willing to accept a lower price or a closing credit for a home with a sticking-point issue, but others are turned off from the start and figure it’s not worth the hassle of fixing it themselves or trying to negotiate a concession.

4. It doesn’t show well.
Make sure that when prospective buyers tour your home, there’s nothing stopping them from falling in love with it. Open those blinds and curtains to let the natural light in and put lamps in areas that are especially dim. Remove any bulky furniture that makes the rooms hard to navigate. Take care of those small items you’ve been putting off, like fixing sticky drawer pulls or that leaky faucet. Small updates like these could be turning off buyers.

5. Buyers can’t picture themselves living there.
The more you enable buyers to picture their own life in your house, the more likely they’ll be to make an offer. Clean and remove clutter and get rid of overly personal items like those family photos along the stairway and your kids’ artwork on the fridge. If your home is currently empty, near-empty, or your furnishings aren’t to most buyers’ tastes, you may want to consider hiring someone to professionally stage your rooms.

6. You’ve neglected the curb appeal.
More than one buyer has pulled up to a house whose listing they liked, taken one look at the exterior, and driven away. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your home is on the inside; if buyers aren’t willing to step in the door, then you’ve lost them.

A few simple fixes can make your curb appeal irresistible. Weed and mulch the flowerbeds, trim the hedges, clear the walkways, and repaint any flaking siding. Consider adding some “homey” touches like a wreath on the door or a bench on the porch. You don’t need to spend a ton on landscaping; just making the outside look presentable and welcoming can make all the difference.

For more information on real estate or home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at http://www.personalpropertymanagers.com or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to home owners transition from their home of many years into a new community. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home clean out services and full service real estate services via our association with EveryHome Realty.